This next hike would bring us back to the Horse-Shoe Trail for the first time in a while, from where we left off in Denver to areas east!
I had restarted doing bits of this trail as part of my Pennsylvania Highlands series. The Highlands Trail has been superimposed onto mostly existing trails acoss much of Pennsylvania, and the Horse-Shoe Trail is a large portion of it from near Colebrook to French Creek, so we've been doing not only this, but all of the side trails and adjacent preserves I never got around to doing when I was doing hikes specifically on the route in the past.
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| 1930s Joanne Martin Bender Collection |
This series has been really fantastic, and I've been loving it far beyond expectation.
Originally, I had considered doing a long hike on just the Horse-Shoe Trail, point to point. However, I remembered how difficult some of the previous sections had been when it came to rocks.
There were bits where Ev had to be out of the stroller, and I had to rely on the group to help get him through. There was just no pushing the stroller with him in it over some of these rocks.
I didn't want to have some big problem like that on a hike that was just about all on that trail, and so I tried to find a way of making it a sort of loop.
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| 1906 Val Redclay Olesh Collection showing funeral procession in Denver |
We had last left off in Denver, a little town in northeast Lancaster County, just off the trail. I had done the segment to the east of there maybe a decade or less ago, and I didn't remember it being particularly tough. Still, it's easy to forget how hard something is when I wasn't pushing a stroller.
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| Early 1900s station agent and telegrapher |
Instead of just going straight through, I found a route off of the trail for a return, through some of the towns and featuring cemeteries, other paths, and historic sites I felt would be good. That way, I could do less of the Horse-Shoe Trail, and focus on some easier stuff that would also be totally new to me.
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| 1971 view of the Denver Station privy by John D. Denney Jr |
Doing a full loop out of Denver would come to about twenty miles, and it didn't look like it would be all particularly good. Instead, I made it close to a loop, which would have only a limited car shuttle at the start.
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| 1962 John J. Bowman Jr. Collection |
I decided we would meet at the Comfort Inn Lancaster County North, which is just east of Denver. We would then shuttle to Denver form there.
When we got to the lot, it turns out we would not be allowed to park there, it was for guests only. I had figured we would move cars to what appeared to be a nearby commuter lot, but it was closed to public with equipment parked in it.
Diane had a suggestion; instead, we would move the cars to the shoulder of nearby Colonel Howard Blvd, close to the Rt 222 on ramp. This would make heading out at the end very easy as well.
We all were able to hop into my mini van to shuttle to the start. I wasn't sure initially where we were going to park for this one, but I soon found parking in downtown Denver.
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| 1910 Journey Through the Past Collection |
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| 1911 Mindi Stoner collection |
I started having a pop tart on the way, brown sugar cinnamon, which is my favorite, and found it to be a half unfrosted and unfilled. I hoped that this wasn't a sign of what the day would be like. Fortunately, it wasn't.
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| Late 1800s Journey Through the Past Collection |
The first thing I wanted to do was to head from the main street, wherever we could find to park, and head to the former site of the train station on the former Reading and Columbia Branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
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| 1950s Reading Company image |
We parked at a good spot just a few blocks west of the crossing and walked downhill a bit to the east to reach the railroad crossing where the station used to stand.
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| 1960s Dan West collection |
Chartered in the 1850s, Reading and Columbia Railroad was completed between Reading and Columbia in 1864. It was leased to the Philadelphia and Reading in 1870.
While the section between Lititz and Ephrata was abandoned in 1985, some sections, including this one, are still actively used by the East Penn Railroad. The majority of what was abandoned, between Lititz and Ephrata area are now the Warwick-Ephrata Rail Trail. We had hiked that entire trail, and then parallel with the active line east of there to Denver. I'd also walked the tracks from this point eastbound from Reinholds in the past. Hopefully I'll get to covering more of it in the future.
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| 1905 Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley |
To the left at the crossing was the former J. C. Burkholder Feed Mill, a still operating industry.
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| 1972 Kerry Glenn |
The settlement was previously called Union Station, but was renamed for the Colorado town, in a rare example of the east following the west.
The Burkholder Feed Mill was established beside the tracks in 1895. Today, it is the Gehman Feed Mill, with much more infrastructure, and remains a successful business. The Burkholder Carriage business used to stand to the right in front of the extant industrial building, but is gone today. Anothe business is given a look that sort of emulates an old station look.
By 1933, most all of the passenger service on the line had been replaced by buses, so there wasn't the need for a passenger station any longer.
The place where the station stood is now the parking lot for a Turkey Hill convenience store, which some of the group made use of when we stopped. I gave a brief history of the station, and then began running around emulating historic photos taken at different times during the railroad's history.
I had a lot of stuff from what was posted by Gregory D. Pawelski, a facebook friend who has done incredible work documenting the history of Pennsylvania's railroads.
There were shots from so many different collections, showing the street during a funeral procession, the station at many angles, the industry, and even the privy that used to stand along the tracks behind the station.
I got another comparison looking from what would have been the inside of the station featuring the station agent and the telegrapher.
One of the 1962 shots was of an A4b 0-4-0 Camelback locomotive on its way from Birdsboro to East Strasburg to become part of the railroad museum we had visited on one of our previous trips earlier in the year.
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| Late 1800s Gehman Mill Collection |
I tried to do all of the shots in order, even though it was not always convenient to do so because there were several taken at one particular location.
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| 1890s Gehman Mill collection |
Doing them consecutively the way they were saved to my phone made it easier for me to label them and keep track of what I was doing because so many of them were so similar.
I ran across to the old feed mill, and tried to get some overhead views, but some of the historic shots could not be emulated because buildings had been built on areas where none stood at the time.
Everyone was pretty patient with me, and stayed with Ev to entertain him while I ran around like a lunatic.
I actually didn't take all that long and was soon finished with all of the historic shots I wanted to get around the area. We all then turned across the street, and through the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant, then through the Gehman Mill lot.
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| 1991 Gregory D. Pawelski |
We came out to North 3rd Street and passed Locust Steet, which crosses over the tracks on a bridge. Some of the historic views I used showed the predecessor of the current bridge, with a pony truss construction style.
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| 1950s Robert Wanner |
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| John D. Denney Jr collection |
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| 1961 Walter Schopp |
We continued ahead to Reinholds Road. There, the Horse-Shoe Trail turns to the right.
There was a lovely bank barn on the property directly across from the intersection, which the historic maps show having been the property of Israel Petticoffer.
We headed downhill a bit on Reinholds Road, and after a slight curve in the road, the trail turned to the left up onto a private driveway.
Even though I had walked this before, some of it really seemed unfamiliar to me. I remembered some stuff, but not all of the turns were obvious. I figure there were likely some reroutes in places, but I'm not sure what they would have been.
In a short bit, there was a white shed building with a horse on the side of it on the right. We continued walking up the driveway, and missed the right turn behind the building.
There had been a tree the blazes were on, which had recently been cut down, so I missed it. We had to backtrack a bit, but we got it.
The trail was rather rocky after a few feet going onto it. I was not going to be able to push the stroller on this bit of foot path at first, so Ev had to get out and walk a little bit.
The trail went up to a fence line, after a small shed structure or spring house, and turned left to follow it gradually uphill for a bit.
There was a bit of a view on the edge of the field back to Denver when we reached the height of the land along the field. Then, the trail entered the woods.
We continued up a bit longer, and Ev walked with Jenny for a bit.
Pretty soon, there was a little shrine with a cross on the left side of the trail. I'd been here before, the previous time I hiked this, so I know this wasn't a reroute. Ev walked into it to check it out.
The Horse-Shoe Trail in eastern Pennsylvania owes much of it’s existence to a man named Henry Woolman.
Woolman, a business man with the Supplee-Willis-Jones Company, and before the merger with the previous, General Manager of Woolman Dairies. He was a graduate and trustee for the University of Pennsylvania, and through these connections certainly would have had some some social pull.
In 1926, Woolman purchased the Cressbrook Farm in the northeastern corner of Tredyffrin Township. An avid equestrian, he would spend his free time riding the many trails through area hills.
That same year, Woolman embarked on a two week horseback riding trip through the Great Smokey Mountains, through North Carolina and eastern Tennessee along the Appalachian Trail. Between 1926 and 1930, Woolman would embark on three more trips to the Great Smokey Mountains with hopes of having the Appalachian Trail opened to equestrian as well as foot traffic.
"Gradually the idea germinated in my mind that here at home we could have a little Smoky Mountain Trail and although the depths of the valleys were in hundreds of feet rather than thousands, the colors of the sunrises and sunsets were just as gorgeous.
There were ridges and ridges stretching across Chester, Berks, Lancaster, Lebanon and Dauphin counties connecting Valley Forge and the Appalachian Trail." Woolman said of the beginnings of the Horse-Shoe Trail Club.
By 1934, Woolman had ridden his favorite horse, Hackaway, along many of the woods roads, and in farther areas we explored by car.
In March of that year, he called a meeting of the University Club in Philadelphia to discuss the organization of a club that would build, mark, and maintain the trail. Many different organizations and officials from both the state and clubs attended, and appointed Woolman temporary Chairman.
The remainder of 1934 was spent locating, blazing, and blazing the trail with yellow painted horseshoes (which was later abandoned for standard paint, though occasionally an old horseshoe can be found along the trail).
"Let us work for a trail in the East, free from the automobile, without gas stations, billboards or hot dog stands on the entire length of 120 miles, dedicated as a parkway from Valley Forge to Manada Gap for hikers, riders and nature lovers." Woolman said of the new trail.
The club was officially incorporated and the trail opened in 1934-35.
We continued to a height of the land in these Furnace Hills, and there were some limited views to the lower lands to the north through the trees.
I was able to get Ev back into the stroller pretty soon, as the trail mostly followed some old woods roads. Occasionally, he'd have to get out for a rocky spot, but for the most part we were good to continue on.
We soon came to a power line clearing, which afforded us a bit of a nice view to the north.
We headed east into some more woods, mostly all private land with permissions, and came to an intersection where there was a handsome metal sign reading "Horseshoe Trail" with double arrows.
There were a couple of these signs on the property ahead.
The route headed a bit downhill, and had to go back up again over a rocky stretch. It was still mostly old woods road, but some of it was rutted to the point that stroller travel was not easy. Ev got out and walked again for some of this stuff.
In the past, Dave was easily able to help me over some of these rough bits, but he had just had surgery on his wrist, which was a mess, and so he could not help with much carrying. His injury had happened on one of my anniversary hikes a few years back, when he went down from a railroad underpass and crossed Rt 31 rather than cross the bridge.
Fortunately, John, Jenny, and Diane were able to help when we had fallen trees and such.
We weaved along the hills, which become known as the Adamstown Ridge in this area, and eventually came to an area of some new developments. These always feel kind of out of place.
Ev was getting tired, and didn't want to get out to walk even when it got tough. We skirted a bit of driveway road, and weaved down and up through the woods after to finally emerge I think onto Sleepy Hollow Road, which is a private drive.
We turned left and headed to the north for a bit, and passed by a house where there was a lady outside doing yard work.
I went by and Ev fell fast asleep on the less bumpy ground. It turned out, the lady working outside was a friend of Diane's who was involved in some outdoor group she's in! The othes fell behind as I continued ahead, and entered the rear gate to the Dutch Cousin Campground.
The last time I had walked through this place, we stopped at the camp store, so that was something we were potentially looking forward to.
As we continued through the camp, some of the group made use of one of the nice restrooms off to the right as we continued on.
We made a right turn on one of the camp roads after a straight shot, and there were some very pretty young girls hiking the opposite direction. I thought they were staying there at first, but they turned out to be hiking the HST, as I saw them go up the hill and out of the grounds the way we had come in.
We made our way gradually uphill, and unfortunately the camp store was closed this time.
We continued to the left on Hill Road heading north for just a bit.
After a short bit, there was a driveway on the right side that the trail went down. It then led into an area of woods for just a short while, across a power line clearing, and then right along the back of someone's yard. Ev woke up in this area and saw a playground set in the back yard, and I had to explain that this was a private property one, and that we couldn't stop and play on it because it was not a public park.
The trail continued through a swath of trees, and soon reached a clearing with a large wooden platform and a rope swing in the woods. When I was last through, there were no signs saying to stay off of it, but some were in place this time.
The trail emerged from the tree line and onto the private driveway to a nice home on the right. John ended up getting on the swing, and a car was coming in the driveway just as we were going by. The guy in the car just smiled and waved at us as we went by, so obviously he didn't mind too much.
There was a bit of a nice view over the farm to the south of us as we headed out to North Muddy Creek Road.
Here, the trail turned left gradually uphill on the road, but only for a short distance. It then turned to the right and passed along a tree line to the left, and farm fence line to the right with more nice scenery.
The trail emerged from this property onto Smokestown Road, then turned to the right.
This was a bit of a busier, wider road, with a lot of new houses along it. On the left, there was one nice old stone gate entrance to a property further up, with old mill wheels built into the walls.
The 1875 Everts & Stewart Atlas of Lancaster County shows the Sweigart, Clapp, and Weaver families had homes in this vicinity.
Smokestown at least had sidewalks along most of it, and then we came to the intersection of Swartzville Road.
The trail turned right on Swartzville Road, which was busier and narrower, but we only had to be on it for a short while.
Pretty soon, at the last house on the left, the trail turned hard left and climbed uphill through the grass of someone's back yard.
The footway got to be a little rough again, and so Ev had to get out of the stroller and walk through the dead leaves for a bit. Fortunately, it got a bit easier soon.
We passed between homes, and soon came out to and crossed Adamstown Road onto a private driveway.
It was a pleasant gravel one, with not too much more climbing yet, as we headed further onto the Adamstown Ridge.
There were people out doing yard work and raking leaves. I don't know why people bother with this so much, especially back on a long, private driveway that hardly anyone will see.
One of the properties was very well landscaped, and had a fake waterfall and stones out in front of it.
Soon, the trail departed the gravel road and continued on more old 18th century charcoal roads along the ridge. The mass of dead leaves on everything sometimes makes it hard to say where the rocks are.
We continued uphill a bit, and soon emerged at the edge of another field. This was a very small, isolated farm area on top of the ridge.
We approached the barns and home, as the trail made its way down an access road, and a goat stepped out of the barn, stopped, and started at us ominously!
Ev was fixated on the goat as we got closer. It did not move. The trail turns hard to the left just before the barn to head back into the woods to the north a bit.
The trail meandered back and forth on old woods roads through this next section, an then came to a place where there were metal posts on either side, which look to be something to prevent ATV passage.
The section ahead after these metal posts was much easier to walk and push the stroller over. It seems it has been pretty well graded.
We continued for a while through this property, and then came to the same kinds of metal posts when we got to the other side of it.
We continued through these pleasant woods for a good long while, and eventually came out to Adamstown Road, although this is a different Adamstown Road than the previous one we had been on. This is because it is a different county. In this last section, we had crossed over from Lancaster County to Berks County. When this Adamstown Road leaves the county, it is called Bowmansville Road.
Almost directly across the road from this location were two side by side driveways, very close to one another. The one to the left had dark, new asphalt, and the one to the right was gravel.
The Horse-Shoe Trail turned to the right from the road along the gravel route.
There was a large "private property" sign on the post at the end of the driveway, but a nice wooden, routed sign in red that read "hikers welcome".
We shifted to the left a bit further up the driveway, and there was a nice pastoral view with a pond to the left.
Where the driveway curved away, the trail continued straight on an old road trace into the woods again, next to a nice old style split rail fence.
We had a very pleasant section of woods ahead here, which got a bit steeper, and descended gradually.
Pretty soon, we emerged onto a power line clearing. The trail went straight across to the north side of it, and then turned right to continue to the east.
The path was grassy and mowed out to the east over a little hill, under the high tension wires.
The trail followed a bit of a fence line, and followed a fence line with wooden HST posts.
Just ahead, at a nice spot where there were some views through trees, we paused for a little lunch break.
It was a nice spot, and it was getting a bit colder while we were there. Ahead, there was a nice view of a hillside that the trail head up ahead, but we wouldn't be doing that part on this trip.
After the break, we continued walking southeast on the clearing, and the trail came out to a paved access road on the clearing, and followed it down to a private driveway known as Oak Way.
We turned from this onto a secondary power line clearing, and descended to the left to another driveway. We turned right on this, which took us to the west. When the driveway turned hard to the right, we cut to the left to continue following the power line on the trail.
Soon, the trail cut off to the left from the power line and descended gradually through the woods.
This was a really rough section for me with the stroller. I couldn't keep Ev in the stroller for any of this.
Fortunately, he was understanding about this, and took Dave by the hand to head down.
The route was a side hill that was rather tough to navigate on the rocks. No one on a horse would have an easy time with any of this.
We continued to descend, and came close to a driveway that had signs stating that this was NOT the Horse-Shoe Trail. There are certainly a few neighbors around that are not a fan of the trail coming through their neighborhoods.
The trail angled left and descended a bit more steeply, in a very narrow swath between homes, with fences and such lining it. There were a pair of stairs going down the last few steps to the road.
This was Old Lancaster Pike, and we were just on the east side of Adamstown, which is still Berks County in this part.
The trail turns right on the Old Lancaster Pike,
The settlement was first established in 1761 by William Addams on the former site of a native American village known for its good springs. The original colonial name was Addamsburry. It became an independent Borough in 1850.
In 1855, a stage road was established between Reading and Lancaster, which later became Rt 222. The highway with that designation now bypasses historic downtown, but the road there is still called the Old Lancaster Pike.
The town is the self-proclaimed antiques capital of the United States, because of the abundance of antique dealers located here. We passed a few of these establishments along the way.
We continued on the trail route just to the east, to the intersection with Furlow Road. Here, the Horse-Shoe Trail turns to the left, but we would be continuing straight.
The next hike in this series could be done by parking in downtown Adamstown and then making our way east after using on street parking in Adamstown.
This intersection was very close to the county line. In a few moments, we would be back into Lancaster again.
On the right, we passed the headquarters building for Good's Potatoe Chips. It was interesting to see such an industry making it in a quiet area.
At first, this was just a pleasant neighborhood walk. It was definitely low income in some of the areas we went through, but it wasn't run down or anything.
We continued west, and crossed over the intersection with Bowmansville Road. Places like this gave a perspective of how far we were going. Time was moving quickly on the easy streets.
I never know what to expect when I'm walking through these little neighborhoods. Just when I think something is going to be rather inconsequential, it ends up being incredibly interesting.
After a little bit more of the neighborhood walking, we came to a large industrial complex. It is shown on Google maps as the Kangol Headware Distribution Center, but it is much more substantial than this name.
This was the historic Bollman Hat Factory, of which Kangol is affiliated. It was established in 1868, and it is the oldest operating hat manufacturer in America.
By the time George Bollman established his business, they were already several hat makers in Adamstown thanks to the presence of the springs that were an important part of the hat making process, for operating machinery and to felt wool.
Bollman continues to operate in Adamstown, although it has facilities around the world. Many celebrities have used Bollman hats, as well as US Olympic team. Lots of others over history have also used Bollman hats including Humphrey Bogart, Carey Grant, Gary Coope, Fred Astaire, and more recently Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Missy Elliott, and Samuel L. Jackson!
I was not at all expecting to find a place of such significance in such a quiet little town no one really speaks of.
When we reached the west side of the building, we walked up through the lot to the east side. From there, we could see some of the original stone building in place, surrounded by so many more of the modern amenities. The stone section is supposedly original to the business on site.
From here, we headed out to Church Street, and then continued west from there on Washington Street.
At the end of Washington Street, we reached Broad Street. Directly across was the Cedar Grove Cemetery, which was the next point of interest I wanted to check out.
Like before, this ended up being far more interesting than I was anticipating we would find.
We turned right uphill, and there was a grand entrance to the cemetery made of stone.
This was the historic 1907 Musser Memorial entrance to the cemetery, which was established in 1885.
Peter M. Musser was the benefactor of the cemetery and entrance, a memorial to John and Cassiah Musser.
Musser apparently moved out of the area, but never forgot or lost love for his home town for which he served as this benefactor.
We walked up to and under the entrance where we had a very nice little break. It started raining a bit while we were here, so it was the perfect time to pause and take some cover.
After this break, we made our way out into the wide pathway through the middle of the cemetery.
To the right, I noticed a tomb stone with the name "Stork" on it, which I felt was odd since it was something usually associated with bringing a baby than what you'd see on a tombstone. Perhaps even more interesting was the fact that this stone was made with an old mill wheel.
In the area closer to the end of the lane, there was a nice sundial donated to the location by Elmer E. Billingfelt. To the left of this was a lovely view down into Adamstown.
We went to the end of the cemetery and then cut to the left. I had been hoping that there would be a way down to Main Street from the end of the cemetery, but when we got to the southwest side, it looked like there was no good way through.
We had to turn back sort of the way we came, although we went down to a lower elevation and passed through what appeared to be the oldest part of the cemetery.
We made our way back out to North Broad Street, and headed down to the main street again.
When we got to the intersection down in town, there was a handsome old stone home built in 1820.
Interestingly, this home is missing from the 1875 Everts & Stewart Atlas of Lancaster County. I went ove the maps pretty extensively to try to figure out where the confusion came about, but couldn't find it. It seems that some of the street names had changed, and some of the planned streets that were at the time still unoccupied are about where they are supposed to be. I guess they placed the home at the wong spot on that map when it was made.
There is no denying the age of the building since the date stone is up in the top story on the west side.
We continued down the street to the west a bit more, and came to a beautiful historic bed and breakfast building on the left side. We had seen the turret sections of the building from the cemetery above.
This was the VAAST Bed and Breakfast, an historic mansion house built in 1910. It had been home to Ed and Carol Stoudt of Stoudt's Brewery until recent years. The couple had started one of Pennsylvania's earliest craft breweries and were behind the Stoudtsburg Village development.
The new name of the place is the first character of the names of the family of 5 that purchased and opened it as a B&B.
It's cool to see that these lodging options are in place so close to the Horse-Shoe Trail, because it was always stealth camp or nothing for those going the distance until more places like this became available.
I do wish that more of the history had been presented by the new owners. Even back before the Stoudt family, there must have been someone promient to have built this grand home. I could not find any information on who that was or what they did however. The site only really tells the family's story of how they got there. The place does look great, and it was all decked out for coming holidays.
We continued ahead to the west on the Main Street some more, and soon reached the Immanuel United Evangelical Church, reportedly built in 1889.
The next point of interest from here was the historic Kagerise Store and home in the downtown, built in 1827. Generations of Lancaster and Berks County residents once patronized this location, now a private residence.
Some of the historic homes had markers on the sides of them telling what their significance was, and this was one of those.
Pretty soon, we were passing the town library on the right. In a short distance from that, there was an old stone pillar to the right.
This was the historic mile marker 9 from the old road out of Reading, which was relocated to the lawn in front of the library.
This is one of only 2 remaining markers (miles from Reading) which date as far back as the 1820s. The other is mile 8, which in rather poor condition and still in its original place. They have "MFR" and the number written on them.
This marker used to be 1.3 miles to the east, but was moved here for protection and display in 2021.
Just beyond the old mile marker, the beautiful Amethyst Inn, built in the 1830s, and now a bed & breakfast, was on a slope above us to the right.
It looks as though this was a mansion of E. Billingfelt at one time, as per the historic atlas maps.
We continued past this building, and on along the main drag to the west, to the fork where Adamstown Road goes up to the right, and the W. Main Street goes left.
We went straight here into the Adamstown Lions Club Memorial Park. It had a flag pole, memoial, and gazebo in it.
From here, we continued uphill through grass and through land of the Adamstown Elementary School. We went along Adamstown Road for just a little bit, and then cut up to the left along the front of the school.
The school was situated on quite a bit slope. When we got behind it, we went up a little higher to a playground that sat with a view over the top of the school to the lands beyond. Ev was out of the stroller playing on it for a little while as we took a break.
I went over the maps of my plan for the area just ahead. I knew where we were going, but there were countless little options of where exactly we would pass through the Adamstown Grove into Adamstown Park.
To the west of us, there were chain link fences at the end of baseball fields, which opened up at certain spots to get into the park land beyond. I looked to where the paved trails were that I intended to reach, and determined which one we would use, just to the right of the dugout for the baseball diamond I think.
Ev did not want ot get back in the stroller, and he didn't want to leave, although he was no longer playing on the playground anyway. We had to move ahead to the opening in the fence and let him have his tantrum. Eventually, he was inclined to run back over to me and get in the stroller. In short order, it was like nothing eve happened and he was happily looking around again.
We descended from the hill behind the dugout into part of the park, which had a walkway down to the area by the community pool which was of course closed.
From here, there was a crushed stone trail to the right that ascended through the land on the north side of the pool.
The trail went over the height of the land, then descended on the other side. Google maps showed the trail running parallel with the street ahead and then terminating just before a hotel, and my plan was to go a bit north into the development from there, but we ended up finding something I wasn't expecting. The trail system continued on to the north through a swath of woods.
At this area, there was a split in the trail, and a side trail to the right went to Stoudtsburg Village. It looked like it was going exactly where I needed it to.
The trail turned to the north through the woods, and ascended slightly. It eventually came into a grassy clearing and then turned ninety degrees to the left.
The trail headed toward the Stoudtsburg Village and a lovely old barn building on the right. There was also a farm house and spring with enclosed pasture to the right that looked to be petty old.
The farm area in our view is shown as being that of Michael Hartung in the 1875 Everts & Stewart Atlas of Lancaster County.
We came out to an access road, and then followed it to Stoudtburg Road. We cossed directly, and got on the paved trails that pass through the Stoudtsburg Village area, a very unique and interesting development we had visited on the hike when I was last in the area years ago.
The Village was developed by Edward and Carol Stoudt in 1996. The 23 acre development was designed to look like a traditional European Village with a slightly modern twist, and included a restaurant and Stoudts Brewery, one of the first successful microbreweries in the region.
We had eaten at Stoudt's Brewery when we last hiked through this area, and I was saddened to hear that it had closed down somewhat recently. Still, the interesting homes and all were still there, and I'd neve followed the walkways all through the development yet.
We turned to the right on the paved path, crossed an access road, and then it went through a narrow space between the homes, not open to vehicles. It was like an old European street between buildings.
We continued around a corner on this, and then back to the southwest. We crossed over another access road, and then continued on the path behind several more of the buildings. This brought us out close to a scenic retention pond on our right.
We continued to the south side of the retention pond, and then turned to the left on another paved path, which led out to and across Village Drive, and then continued between more houses.
The trail ended at a development called Market Plaza, and we turned to the right to leave the development.
We cut to the southeast to Stoudtsburg Road, and then continued south almost to Rt 272/Reading Road.
Just before reaching this, we turned to the right into the rear parking lot and then continued walking through the parking lot until we reached the end of them. This was where the route of the Old Lancaster Pike. This was a remaining bit of the original stage road alignment that sits parallel with modern day Rt 272. It took us almost all the way to the intersection with Swartzville Road.
I had considered walking through more ball fields and such parallel with the highway to the north when I planned this hike, but we'd done enough mileage and at this point I was happy with just going directly back.
Jen was up at the front with me for this final stretch, and we passed through the fronts of parking lots along the way on the road.
Through a grove of trees on the left, we had a view of the Muddy Creek Evangelical Lutheran Church and Grove outside of Swartzville Pennsylvania.
The current chapel was constructed in 1939, for the congregation that dates back to 1732. The original log church here didn't even have a floor!
From here, we didn't have too much farther to go on Rt 272. We continued along the edge of the highway, and passed by a large landscaped name in the grass that read "STONER". I thought it was funny, because out of towners might stop and think that was some sort of weed distribution center instead of just a local Pennsylvania German name. Soon, we passed beneath the PA Turnpike, and came to the intersection with Colonel Howard Blvd on the left, and Denver Road on the right.
Originally, we were going to load up my stroller into one of the cars and shuttle me back to Denver.
It was still somewhat light out, but there wasn't all that much left. We were still getting done a bit earlier than anticipated.
Rather than carry all of that stuff back, Diane would me back to my car in Denver, and Jenny stayed with Ev and my stroller. They went across a lawn and into a Turkey Hill convenience store lot while I hurried with Diane to my car and came right back to that spot.
Since we were done early, we decided we would actually stop and get dinner after this one. We went over to Procopio's Pizza I think it was, which we had walked by a little bit earlier, and got a couple of pies.
Ev actually ate too, so it was a relief to not have to figure out something that he would eat on the way home. We had a nice meal and were able to head home without any other issues.
I was really happy with the way this one turned out, as usual, and was ready to start concocting the next hike in the extended Horse-Shoe Trail and Pennsylvania Highlands series. There is so much more to see, and I had plans to pull a lot of other locations together, armed with a positive attitude left from this hike.
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